Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said, “We are trying to reach an agreement. If we reach an agreement, that’s great. But if we don’t, many will pay a heavy price.”
Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Moscow expects the new Russian-American summit to provide an opportunity to move towards a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. He pointed out that “Russia’s position and President Putin’s stance on the Ukrainian settlement is firm and well-known,” emphasizing that Russia is still communicating with the United States regarding the Ukrainian settlement, and work is ongoing seriously.
After a two-and-a-half-hour call, Yuri Ushakov, assistant to Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced that Moscow and Washington would immediately begin preparations for a new summit between the two countries’ leaders, which might be held in Budapest. According to Ushakov, the American president proposed the Hungarian capital, and the Russian president supported the idea. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that he had ordered the preparations to begin and stated that this work started on Thursday evening.
